Information Privacy/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Moby is using a tablet on a chair by the swimming pool. A banner on a web page reads: "Click here to win a free pet sloth!" Moby clicks the link. The new page reads "Congratulations!!!! You've won a brand new sloth! Just fill out our survey, and we'll put it in the mail today!" Moby starts to enter his personal information in the site's form. Tim is concerned. TIM: Moby! What are you doing?! MOBY: Beep. TIM: You can't just give your personal information to anyone who asks for it. If some random guy in the street asked you for your name, address, and phone number, you'd probably say no, right? MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, the same rules apply online. Before you share anything about yourself, you should stop, and ask a couple of questions. Who are you sending this info to? And what are they going to do with it? MOBY: Beep! Moby points to his computer. Then he clicks a button. Tim gets irritated. TIM: But I just said...! Tim sighs. TIM: Well, I guess you'll have to learn the hard way. Moby finishes typing in his info and submits it to the sloth site. TIM: Now, do me a favor: Check your phone. When you filled out the form to get your sloth, you also gave that site permission to use your contact info. Moby's phone screen shows tons of messages from unsaved numbers. TIM: That's why you're suddenly getting all these texts trying to sell you stuff. I bet your email is jammed with junk mail too. Moby checks his email and sees dozens of new junk mail messages. TIM: Unwanted texts, emails, and other messages are known as spam. Believe it or not, some companies make money by selling personal info to spammers! An animation shows a sloth in a parking garage handing a folder with Moby's picture on it to a man wearing a long overcoat and a fedora. The man gives the sloth a stack of money. TIM: Spam clogs your messages with ads and phony offers. Some are scams, attempts to trick you out of your money. A spam email to Moby reads: "Congrats! You've won five million dollars! Just transfer $100 to the account below so we can transfer your winnings into your account." TIM: And others... well, others link to things that are totally inappropriate for kids and robots. Moby opens a link. Techno music plays. Moby's eyes bulge and Tim closes his eyes. Moby exits out of the link. TIM: Phew. And that's not the worst part. Clicking on links and attachments in spam can expose your device to malware. That's any kind of sneaky or destructive program, like viruses. An email in Moby's inbox reads: "Open this attachment!!!! Fun stuff inside, we promise." Moby clicks on the attachment. TIM: A lot of malware is designed to spy on your online activity. An animation shows the camera on Moby's device turning on and a sloth in a van down the street watching Tim and Moby. TIM: They track the sites you visit, and then send that information to advertisers. Or they might hijack a device and use it to send out spam. The sloth in the truck pulls up Tim's contacts list on his computer screen. Moby receives a message on his phone from Tim's phone, asking him to click on a link. TIM: So, if a message from one of your friends seems fishy, find out for sure if they sent it. Speaking of which, phishing is another tricky ploy. You get a message, the bait, from a website you trust or use regularly. Moby's phone gets a text message from PayFriend, which reads: Click here to reset your PayFriend password! TIM: It might ask you to fix a problem with your account or reset a password. It's designed to seem official and will even send you to a site that looks legit. Only it's all a setup to get your username and password. MOBY: Beep! TIM: Sometimes you can tell something's off. There'll be misspellings in the message, or on the website. Like here, there's a missing "r" in "friend.". The URL at the top of the PayFriend site reads "pay fiend.com." TIM: But lots of phishing attacks are way harder to spot than that. Falling victim to one can open you up to identity theft. That's when scammers use your personal info to imitate you online. It's usually to steal money from a bank account or credit cards. Images show an ATM machine, a credit card, a fingerprint, and a man's shadow. TIM: Even if you're too young for that stuff, the information could be saved for when you're older. MOBY: Beep? TIM: If you know an app or website is legit, you should still read their privacy policy. That's an explanation of how they plan to use any info you give them. The law requires that these terms be posted and freely available for anyone to read. But sometimes they hide stuff in the fine print, or try to sneak things in at the end of a huge list. See – look at this! Moby clicks on the "Terms of Service" under the sloth survey's Submit button and scrolls through the privacy policy until he gets to number six, Terms and Conditions. It reads: "Slothparty.com reserves the right to use your information however we please. We'll sell it to spammers, hackers, ex-girlfriends, you name it. And you can't do anything about it. Sucker!" MOBY: Beep! TIM: Yeah, unfortunately, there are shady people out there just waiting to take advantage. But you can take some steps to keep your info safe. If you're on any social network, set your profile to private. Then your posts will be visible only to people in your contact list. That's why it's a good idea to limit your contacts to people you actually know. Friends from online could be anyone. An image shows the privacy settings of a social networking site. Moby sets his privacy setting to "friends only." TIM: Being careful with your passwords is a smart idea too. Use strong passwords with letters, numbers, and symbols. Moby changes his old easy password, "moby," to a new difficult password, "i65_GGn3u." TIM: Vary them for every app and site. And keep them in a safe place. Moby writes down his list of passwords on a notepad, which he puts in a safe in his stomach. TIM: Finally, before you buy, download, or sign up for anything, ask a parent or guardian if it's okay! MOBY: Beep! TIM: Well, I'm glad you understand now. Anyway, haven't you been online enough for one day? Let's jump in the pool and play kung-fu water polo! MOBY: Beep! Tim and Moby see a lot of sloths hanging out in the pool in their backyard. TIM: Oh, man, what have you gotten us into? MOBY: Beep. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts